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Published August 20, 2008
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Slow Down Lamorinda - Did it Work?
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| By Cathy Tyson and Sophie Braccini |
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| Solar-powered speed tracking trailer on Moraga Road Photo Andy Scheck |
It’s been a year since last summer’s Slow Down Lamorinda Campaign. This season with major construction projects in Lafayette, Orinda and Moraga, traffic was definitely impacted. We checked in with Moraga Police Chief Mark Ruppenthal, Orinda Chief Bill French, and Lafayette Chief Mike Hubbard to see if there have been any changes in driving habits a year later.
“The campaign certainly had an effect and the education portion of the program seemed to be successful,” said Chief Hubbard. “It is really too soon to know if it had a lasting effect. That would depend on what our accident statistics look like since that is how we measure success in traffic enforcement.”
There hasn’t been a dramatic reduction in the number of speeding citations in Orinda since the completion of the campaign, according to Chief French. “As for a lasting effect, that’s an open question. The statistics show a decrease from the amount of citations issued from the previous year to this year,” said Chief Ruppenthal. “From 1/1/07 through 8/13/07 a total of 910 speed cites were issued. From 1/1/08 through 8/13/08 at total of 817 cites were issued. If you factor in 2007 that we dedicated an officer to traffic enforcement during a portion of that period, I would say the community still has a speed issue. We still see high speeds, most recently a 74 coming down Rheem Blvd. from Orinda. If we had been able to commit to a traffic officer similar to Lafayette and Orinda, our information would have likely been different. I do believe that over time, if high visibility enforcement would have continued, we would have had a change in habits.”
With regard to area road construction the consensus is that it could have been much worse. Orinda residents are very happy with the repaving of Moraga Way, which left us wondering if drivers will be tempted to speed? “The City Engineer and her team did a fantastic job with Moraga Road to eliminate the potholes and create a much smoother, quieter driving surface. The potential to speed on the new road may be increased, but it’s a narrow and often congested thoroughfare and people must maintain their speed within the limit,” said French. With Moraga Road still under construction, Ruppenthal notes that the police department has received less than a handful of complaints. “I have heard the community loves the flaggers. They feel traffic has moved more smoothly and efficiently.” Lastly Lafayette, “The flaggers did a very good job. Too good for some. We had people comment that they wanted the flaggers to stay out there because of how smooth traffic flowed through the area. There was some negative impact on the area that was addressed with increased enforcement efforts in the Burton Valley area. We deployed one to two extra officers in the morning and afternoons. I anticipated that there would be drivers that would not use the detour and would look for alternative routes through the Burton Valley area. We found that this did happen and there were many citations issued to drivers for speeding and failing to stop at stop signs in the area.” Finally, we asked the chiefs if they anticipate more tickets with students heading back to school shortly. “School is a critical time. We have several school zones where there will be more drivers on the road at certain times of the day,” said French. Due to staffing constraints there are no back to school speeding campaigns in the works for the Moraga Police Department, but Chief Ruppenthal wants to remind students that traffic enforcement is still a priority to the department. Teen drivers would be wise to make a note of this. “We will doing more directed enforcement around the schools once school starts back up.” Later this year the Lafayette police department is the host agency for the ‘Avoid the 25’ campaign. “We will be hosting DUI checkpoints and conducting saturation patrols for drunk drivers throughout the fall and winter months,” said Chief Hubbard. |
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| Reach Cathy at: cathy@lamorindaweekly.com and Sophie at: sophie@lamorindaweekly.com |
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Lamorinda Weekly, Moraga CA